Same Voters Oppose Politicians Attacking the Ballot Measure Process

Phoenix– A new Public Policy Polling survey conducted on behalf of Arizona Wins finds that huge majorities of voters support keeping the Voter Protection Act and support the constitutional right of Arizonans to put measures on the ballot, and would oppose legislators who disagreed. The poll surveyed the opinions of 629 Arizona voters using both phone calls and online polling. This poll was released at a ProgressNow Arizona press conference this morning ahead of the House Appropriations Committee hearing where yet another bill undermining the ballot measure process was heard. HCR2029 sponsored by Senator Don Shooter further attacks Arizonans’ constitutional rights and rigs the ballot measure process to make some voters more powerful than others. Julie Cieniawski, President of Scottsdale Education Association and teacher at Desert Canyon Middle School, said, “Politicians want to take that constitutional right away from us. Stop attacking the Arizona Constitution and the voters by trying to gut our citizen-led ballot initiative process. Michele Ugenti-Rita needs to stand on the side of voters, her constituents and vote against HCR2029.”

Key findings from the poll include:

– By an 83-7 margin, voters want to keep the Voter Protection Act. This support spans the political spectrum – 91{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Democrats, 76{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Republicans and 83{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Independents all want to keep the law.

– State Legislators who want to get rid of the Voter Protection Act would face ire from their constituents, 73{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of whom say they would be less likely to vote for them, including 83{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Democrats, 64{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Republicans and 75{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Independents.

– 87{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of voters say they support the constitutional right of Arizonans to put measures on the ballot, including 91{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Democrats, 81{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Republicans and 92{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Independents.

– Voters would not look favorably on Legislators who want to take away the constitutional right of Arizonans to put measures on the ballot – by a 79-11 margin they say they’d be less likely to support those who would take the right away, including 83{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Democrats, 74{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Republicans, and 82{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Independents.

– The political danger surrounding this issue extends to Governor Ducey, with 73{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of voters saying they’re less likely to vote to re-elect him based on his opposition to the Voter Protection Act and his wanting to take away the constitutional right of Arizonans to put measures on the ballot, including 84{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Democrats, 54{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Republicans and 82{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} of Independents.

– Voters like what they’ve been able to achieve using the ballot initiative process in Arizona, with 81{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} supporting allowing Arizonans to continue to have the constitutional right to use ballot initiatives to advance policy in Arizona, including 59{28335ed37dd724deee500aa029442e0d9d58206d63320e844ba7e9fe720a29c1} who say they “strongly support” it.

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